Rebuilding Tally Ho

In this episode Cecca and I travel to New York, where we house-and-dog-sit for some friends. I drive up to Connecticut to meet Duke at New England Naval Timbers, who supplies large pieces of semi-seasoned White Oak. I select enough curved and straight logs to make Tally Ho’s Deck Structure, and then we mill it into the appropriately sized flitches. We also get a ride on a state-of-the-art New York Tugboat (courtesy of McAllister Towing), and I even tag along with a Harbour-pilot while he navigates a huge container-ship out of NYC harbour.

As I’m away from the boat for a while, this is a Q&A episode! Will TALLY HO sail with a GPS? Where will her first (post-rebuild) voyage be? Will I be building a replica of the original tender? Could a dolphin, if properly trained, operate my forklift?! For answers to these THRILLING questions, and more, join me for a cup of tea and a chat in episode 64.

In this episode, I return to Cornwall to catch up with Luke Powell and his team, who are getting ready to launch the replica Pilot Cutter PELLEW. Luke talks about how this project came about, how to start a career in boatbuilding, and why we should all be building wooden boats!

Back to work on Tally Ho! After returning to the West Coast, I start by planing and bolting the beam shelf scarps joints. In the process, I buy a vintage pipe threading machine and use it to thread the bolts. After a 3500 mile journey across the USA, a Pink Fireman arrives with a trailer-full of White Oak for TALLY HO’s deck beams, which we unload with the help of a forklift and a stubborn parrot. It’s good to be back!

In this episode, I finish planing the beamshelves, move them into the boat, and start the process of bending them around the inside of the frames - creating some big loads and some scary creaking noises… Meanwhile, Marshall helps by cleaning up the vintage threading machine, and we send a broken part to Keith Rucker for repairs. In other news, the StarBoat finally finds a great new home, and I have some really exciting news about the future of the project!

In this episode, I finish twisting the beam shelves into place, bending them into their final positions forward and aft. I receive the repaired part of the pipe threading machine in the mail back from Keith Rucker, who brazed together the broken pieces and replaced the bushings. After reassembling the threading machine, it works wonderfully. Finally, I need to work out an efficient way to fabricate bolts to fasten the beam shelves to the frames, and so I make a few haphazard jibs to help. Pancho takes a bath, and I find another Shipwright to work on the project with me!

I’m very excited and grateful to welcome another Shipwright onto the Tally Ho rebuild! We also have a new volunteer here, so the 3 of us and Cecca get to work making bolts, fastening the Beam Shelf, and making Deck Beams to span the the boat and support the deck itself. Meanwhile, Pancho has a stand-off with some chickens and Cecca reintroduces herself… sort of. We also have a discussion about deck camber, and what “constant camber” means when constructing the deck of a yacht.

It’s time to start building the Deck Structure! Firstly I take a look at the old Beam Shelves and analyse the 110 year-old joinery of the original boatbuilders. I decide to replicate these joints and we start fitting the King Beams, starting at the stern and working forward. Pete cuts out the Carlins and Half-Beams before joining me fitting the main beams, and Patrick starts with planing and sanding the beams prior to install. After lots and lots of chisel-work fitting the main beams, I look at the original Carlin joints, and then fit the aftermost Carlins that make up the Lazarette hatch.

In this episode we finish building the majority of the deck structure! Lots of dovetails are cut, and the deck layout emerges as we add carlins and half beams one by one. We also begin making the templates for casting the solid bronze floors, and start the renovation of one of the original teak hatches - which I am hoping to reuse on the the deck. In other news, Pete’s dog meets Pancho, and Cecca does some metawork.

In this episode we face a major dilemma - having found that one of the White Oak logs had porous grain (bad news!) I have to make the painful decision of whether or not to replace 19 deck beams that we already made from it. Meanwhile, Tally Ho’s planking stock arrives and is stacked ready for planking. The frames get faired and the bilge stringers get made, scarphed, and finally bent into the hull of the boat. Finally all is well, and Patrick teaches us some useful boat terminology.

This is the day - the big reveal! With the deck structure fastened permanently into the Beam Shelf, we can remove the temporary cross-palls and finally see Tally Ho’s internal space and the underside of the deck structure. But before we bolt them into place, we have to prepare the deck beams by sanding, chamfering and varnishing them. Luckily we have the help of a new volunteer - Clark. We also fasten the bilge stringer to the frames, and take care of the most satisfying job of all - trimming all the frame-heads with a chainsaw!

In this episode I work on repairing and reinstalling Tally Ho’s original transom timbers. Being Teak, they have escaped rot, but have a lot of damaged areas and holes that need to be filled with plugs and graving pieces. I also need to add a couple of new planks, so I visit a friend with some Teak for sale, and have a look around his interesting workshop. The planks are joined together with vertical splines and fastened to the stern of the boat. An assortment of animals try to get in the way, as always.

In this extra-length episode, Pete and Clark show the process of making individual patterns for each of the floors, laminating thin strips of ply into the boat and then shaping and sculpting them into the shape that we need. Patrick returns to help get the boat ready for planking, and we take the patterns to Port Townsend Foundry, where we learn all about the exciting bronze casting process, pack some moulds, and pour the first two floors for Tally Ho. When the molten bronze has solidified and cooled, we can break them out, grind them down, and take them back to the boat to see if they fit! Meanwhile, Pancho keeps her beady eye on the hens, and Backtrack expands his repertoire of napping spots!

In this episode I focus on the final install of the transom, using a couple of old tricks to ensure that it stays watertight. The planks get bolted to the sternpost and eventually fully plugged and varnished. Pat keeps busy at the Port Townsend Foundry, casting more Floors in Bronze. Clark fits the Floors into the boat - grinding, sanding and polishing them to ridiculous perfection! Meanwhile, Pete works hard on fairing the Rabbet and beginning to fair the outside of the frames, while Pancho keeps an eye on him and busts out some funky moves for the camera!

In this episode we take a look at the names of the basic parts of a wooden boat. Hopefully this will help people who haven’t had much experience with traditionally built vessels to better understand what we are doing on Tally Ho! After that I start working on the hanging and lodging knee patterns, creating a jig to taper stacks of plywood for the laminated arms. Pat’s wife Bonny helps us out with some grinding whilst Pat casts more floors at Port Townsend Foundry. Clark fits the floors into the boat and Pete continues fairing the frames for planking, only stopping occasionally to tell me exactly what he is doing…

In this episode we calculate the locations and sizes of all the hull planks, based on the complex shape of the hull. I’ve never done this before, so we get some help from the Lead Shipwright on the Western Flyer Project (Shipwrights Co-Op, PT). I’m also very excited to welcome two new members to the team - Rosie, who is going to be in an apprentice-style role, and Charlie, who is going to be helping out with video production! We also continue working on the floors, fairing the frames, and making long battens for the lining-out. Meanwhile Backtrack finds a new favourite napping spot and Pancho steps up her dancing game.

In this episode I start thinking about the plank fastenings for Tally Ho. Using copper rivets is the strongest and most authentic choice, but they are not available to buy in the size I need. Just as I am trying to work out the smartest way to make the rivets, we receive a mysterious box in the mail, from a fan. Amazingly, someone has custom-fabricated a machine for making copper rivets out of round bar! We also work on making all the patterns for the hanging knees, which will be cast in Bronze at PT Foundry. Matt and David join the team, and get stuck into grinding bronze, and Rosie gets into her stride laminating the patterns. Backtrack is unamused by the baby chicks.

Cutting the Prop aperture and boring out the hole for the stern-tube are intimidating jobs - you only get one chance to get it right. But it’s easier to tackle these tasks before the planking goes on, and I’ve had the help of a shipbuilding engineer to work out the best shape and size for these alarming new holes. Also in this episode, I finally make the template for the final shape of the transom, and Pete fairs it into the rest of the hull very nicely - more-or-less completing the tedious but valuable fairing job. The shapes of the lower planks get lined out and marked on the frames in preparation for fastening the floors.

Having poured all the smaller bronze Floors, we have to build a bigger flask in order to cast the largest ones. Packing these big moulds isn’t without it’s setbacks, and we experience the frustration of having the sand collapse onto the ground after a whole day of shovelling and ramming. Eventually we make a successful pour, and after this piece is ground and finished it is bolted into the boat alongside its siblings. Meanwhile, the last of the patterns are made - including all the Lodging Knees and Breast Hooks. The crew become obsessed with a small wooden puzzle that arrived mysteriously in the mail - all apart from Pancho, who is beyond the limitations of puny human diversion.

In this episode, we focus on the fitting, shaping and polishing of the cast bronze Hanging Knees. We cast the last Floor, and production is speeding up in the foundry, with an average of two pieces being made every day! Meanwhile, Matt makes THOUSANDS of copper rivets for fastening the hull planking, and Pete fastens more floors into place - taking advantage of different fastening techniques in the areas where bolts cannot be used. Rowan returns to the project, and tries - unsuccessfully - to finally make friends with Pancho.

We have finished casting! In this episode, the final lodging knee is cast by Daniel - his first time pouring the molten bronze, and not without a little bit of fire & chaos! After a celebration, we work on installing the last of the bronze floors, planing the planking stock, and riveting the first lodging knee into the deck frame of the boat. Backtrack, like the rest of us, is unimpressed with yet more grinding.

At long last all the bronze hanging knees, lodging knees, breasthooks and floors are fastened into the boat! In this video we show the final parts of the process, including some welding of the most unusually shaped knees. We also do some more preparation for planking - planing more of the huge boards and finishing the line-out. In other news, Backtrack gets some slick threads, and Pancho shows a hint of halloween evil…

After a much-needed week off, we head back into the yard and begin the next stage of the rebuild - making and fitting planks! The last stages of the lining-out are completed first, and then templates are made and transferred to the wide boards of Wana that make up our planking stock. After the planks are cut they get various bevels before being hung and fastened to the boat! Meanwhile all the planking marks are transferred to the other side of the boat, the knees get one last polish, and we mill up some Purpleheart to be used for Butt Blocks.

In this episode, we start to get the “hang” of the planking! The first quick job is to put the Stopwaters into the centreline seams - softwood dowels which will swell up and prevent water ingress. Then the first Angelique Garboard is hung, and is quickly followed by more Topside Planks and Broads. Meanwhile, I jury-rig a circular saw to cut rolling bevels, which helps speed up cutting the planks out. The other guys get into the swing of riveting, with the help of a homemade “Dolly” (otherwise known as a “Bucking Iron”). We are still speeding up, but by the end of the first 2 weeks of planking we have 12 planks on the boat, which I’m pretty happy with!

I can’t put it off any longer, a final decision has to be made about Tally ho’s engine! In this episode we start by looking back at the boat’s early Paraffin engines, and then go on to discuss some of the options for a new “power-plant”. Vintage or modern, new or used, diesel or electric or paraffin or... nuclear?! There are a lot of options, and each one has good and bad attributes, but in the end I come to a decision which I hope is going to give all the reliability and simplicity necessary at sea, but with an exciting twist!

It’s holiday season, so happy Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, or whatever! As Saint Nicholas screams overhead in a pandemic-proof jet-powered sleigh, the Tally Ho crew are are merrily cutting planks and pounding rivets. In this episode we get to know the voluntary crew a bit better as we learn new things about Clench Rings, Butt Blocks, and Bucking Irons (it may sounds dirty, but I promise these are legit boatbuilding terms). On Christmas day we have 31 planks on the boat!